Beautiful Beijing

(Alex)

Getting up really early this morning in the Shaolin Temple was not the easiest thing to do … especially after such a strenuous couple of days. We shuffled out of the Temple at 5:30 sharp, in order to catch our early flight out of the airport, 2 hours away from Louyang. We were rather worried by the timing, and thought more than once that we would miss our flight. Our cool-headed guide, George, assured us everything would work out, and even managed to intimidate the airport manager enough to get us out of having to pay a fee for our overweight bags. One short plane ride later and we landed in the capital of China, Beijing, exhausted and ready to sleep. 

At 9 in the morning. Our new guide, Ashley, a very small and very young looking girl, met us and began to lead us to the car. Sensing our exhaustion, Ashley decided not to push us too hard. Allowing us about two hours to recuperate at the hotel, which was very much needed, she picked us up for lunch at around 12:30 and promised that we would have a short day. We had a delicious lunch in a secluded little restaurant, which gave off the ambiance of a truly traditional and local restaurant, although it was very smoky. Soon after, we headed to the Beijing Capitol Museum, an amazingly built and organized exhibition. Ashley informed us that it had been very recently rebuilt in lieu of the huge increase of tourism within Beijing for the Olympics. It had a total of seven floors, on which the exhibitions were built along the sides of the building, leaving the center in the open air, and allowing some of the braver tourists to view the formidable height and size of the building.  A huge imitation stone column dominated the entrance, within which were housed completely digital interactive screens of some of the more lavish artifacts on display. Many photos to be put up as soon as we get to Hangzhou. 

After the Museum, Ashley brought us to the much anticipated Beijing Zoo, where we headed straight to the Panda exhibit to see the countries most famous citizens. The pandas, almost 20 in total, were definitely one of the many highlights of the trip. Watching them waddle about and play with one another completed for me what I wanted to get out of a Chinese travel experience. It turned out that we had arrived at the Zoo too late to wander around and look at the other animals, which was a bummer. I especially wanted to visit the section labeled as “American Animals”. I think it would have been cool to see what animals Chinese associate with us. 

So we left the zoo around five, calling off the Peking Duck Dinner until the night that we were heading to the Peking Opera (as per Ashley’s advice) and headed sleepily back to the hotel. Where we all are now. We all seem to be winding down lately and look forward to getting to Hangzhou… though I am sure this will not diminish our experiences to come in China’s capital. Sorry that this blog was so short… but there I think my exhausted stupor somewhat prevented me from being able to take in the full experiences of the day. Good thing I took a lot of pictures! Hope to blog soon, although this might be the last one I do during our travel portion